Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Ps 130.1 and following. Indeed, it was not the oppression of Psalm 129, but the feeling of sin that placed the soul of the righteous in “deep places” (Psalm 130:1). However, as low as he feels, he can always invoke God. “There is redemption in abundance with him” (verse 7). Verse 4 may surprise us. It would seem to us that forgiveness has the effect of dispelling fear. But it’s the other way around! The knowledge of grace gives the work of consciousness its true depth. For we measure the horror of our situation only by our Savior’s effort to get us out of it (Rom 6:12-14 and 1 Pet 1:17-21). Psalm 131. The trials of a believer usefully contribute to humiliating him and breaking his own will (verse 1). God allows them, and He must submit. When what he loved was taken away from him, his soul is found to be “weaned” (verse 2). He looks like the small child suddenly deprived of breast milk but always close to his mother. At the moment he cannot understand that this is the condition of his growth. Thus the Lord sometimes sees fit to take away from us what seemed precious and indispensable to us to force us to expect only from Him alone (vs. 3:5-7).
I cried out to you from the depths, O Lord! It is noteworthy that the Prophet speaks of himself as sending his voice, so to speak, from a deep abyss, feeling overwhelmed by calamities. Since the miseries to which there is no prospect of termination usually lead to despair as a result of them, nothing is more difficult than for people, when they are involved in painful and deep sorrow, to arouse their minds to the exercise of prayer. And this is wonderful, considering that while we enjoy peace and prosperity, we are cold in prayer, because then our hearts are in a state of infatuated security, how in adversity, which should invigorate us, we are even more amazed. But the Prophet draws his trust in ascending the throne from grace from the very problems, worries, dangers and pain in which he has been plunged. He expresses his perplexity and the sincerity of his desire both by the word Cry and by the repetition continued in the second verse. The barbaric ignorance of somepeople, in desecrating this psalm by making it worse for a purpose alien to its true application, is all the more detestable. With what intention do they mumble for the dead, except that, as a result of Satan having bewitched them, they can by their blasphemy extinguish a doctrine of singular utility? Since the moment this psalm was, by a forced interpretation, applied to the souls of the dead, it is very generally believed to be of no use to the living, and so the world has lost a priceless treasure.
If you kept the memory of iniquities. Here the Prophet acknowledges that, although gravely afflicted, he had rightly deserved such punishment, as it had been inflicted on him. As by his own example, he gives a rule that the whole Church must observe, that no one presumes to interfere in the presence of God, but in the way of humbly belittling his anger; and especially when God exercises severity in his relations with us, know that we are bound to make the same confession that is pronounced here. Whoever flatters himself or buries his sins out of inattention towards them, deserves to lose himself in his miseries; at least it is unworthy to obtain from God the slightest relief. Whenever God then displays the signs of his wrath, even the man who seems to others to be the holiest of all his fellow men, descends to make this confession, that if God decides to deal with us according to the strict requirements of his law, and to summon us before his tribunal, none of the whole human race can come forward. We admit that it is one man who prays here, but he immediately pronounces the sentence against the entire human race.
“All the children of Adam,” he said substantially, “from the first to the last, are lost and condemned, if God asks them to account for their lives.” It is therefore necessary that even the holiest of men pass under this condemnation, so that they may indulge in God’s mercy as their only refuge. The Prophet does not, however, intend to mitigate his own fault by thus involving others with himself, as we see hypocrites do, who, when they do not dare to justify themselves, resort to this subterfuge: “Am I the first or only man to have offended?” and thus, mingling with a multitude of others, they believe themselves half absolved of their guilt. But the Prophet, instead of seeking to protect himself from such subterfuge, confesses instead, after careful examination of himself, that if of the whole human race not even one can escape eternal perdition, it will rather diminish his weight ofpunishment.
Whoever, as if he had said it, will enter into the presence of God, whatever his eminence for holiness, he must succumb and remain confused, what will be the case for me, who is not one of the best? The proper application of this doctrine is that every man seriously examines his own life by the perfection prescribed to us by law. In this way, he will be forced to confess that all men without exception have deserved eternal damnation; and everyone will recognize in his regard that he is a thousand times defeated. Further on, this passage teaches us that since no man can stand by his own works, all those who are judged righteous before God are righteous because of forgiveness and the remission of their sins. Forno man can be just in the eyes of God. Others think very differently: They confess that the defects of our works are filled by God’s mercy to us; but at the same time they dream of partial righteousness, on the basis of which men can stand before God. But bymaintaining such an idea, they move away from the meaning of the Prophet, as will appear more clearly in the following.
Mays forgiveness is with you. This verse takes us further. Although all men confess with their mouths that there is no human being in the world to whom God cannot just offer eternal death, if he pleases it, however how few are convinced of the truth that the Prophet now adds, that the grace they need will not be denied to them? David then acted as he should have when, in order to achieve true repentance, he first called himself before God’s tribunal; but, to preserve his confidence from failure under the overwhelming influence of fear, he now adds the hope that there was to obtain forgiveness. It is, in fact, a question that comes under our daily observation, that those who do not go beyond the stage of believing themselves to be deserving of an endless death, rush, like frantic men, with great impetuosity against God. Therefore, to better confirm himself and others, the Prophet declares that God’s mercy cannot be separated or torn from himself. If unbelievers often show great seriousness, just as we see others laboriously occupied with their superstitions, because they are not convinced that God is reconciled with them, they do not always give him voluntary obedience. If they were not held back by a servile fear, the horrible rebellion of their hearts, which this fear keeps hidden and repressed, would soon manifest itself outside.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
From depths:
Divine hearing, God is attentive to the prayers of the righteous
Ps 34:16 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cries. Ps 94:9 Would he who planted his ear not hear? Wouldn’t the one who formed the eye see? Isaiah 59:1 No, the hand of jehovah is not too short to save, nor is his ear too hard to hear. John 5:4 Behold, the wages of the workers who have harvested your fields, and of whom you have frustrated them, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
- Our inequities
Ps 40:13 For countless evils surround me; The punishments of my iniquities reach me, and I cannot bear the sight of them; They are more numerous than the hair of my head, and my courage abandons me. Ps 53:2 The fool says in his heart: There is no God! They have corrupted themselves, they have committed abominable iniquities; None of them do good. Ps 90:8 You put before you our iniquities, and in the light of your face our hidden faults. Ps 130:3 If you kept the memory of iniquities, Jehovah, Lord, who could subsist?
- Fear of God, commanded
Isaiah 8:13 It is the Lord of hosts that you must sanctify, It is He whom you must fear and dread. Mt 10:28 Fear not those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can cause the soul and body to perish in Gehenna. 1 Pet 1:17 And if you invoke as Father the one who judges according to the work of each one, without accepting persons, conduct yourselves with fear during the time of your pilgrimage, 1 Pet 2:17 Honor everyone; love the brethren; fear God; honor the king.
- Promised spiritual purification
Ps 65:4 Iniquities overwhelm me: You will forgive our transgressions. Ezekiel 36:25 I will pour out pure water upon you, and you will be purified; I will cleanse you from all your defilements and idols. Mk 7:23 All these evil things come out of the inside, and defile man. Hb 12:15 Ensure that no one deprives himself of God’s grace; that no root of bitterness, growing offspring, produces trouble, and that many are infected with it;
From all of the above, we note that it was not the oppression of Psalm 129, but the feeling of sin that placed the soul of the righteous in “deep places” (Ps 130:1). However, as low as he feels, he can always invoke God. “There is redemption in abundance with him” (verse 7). Verse 4 may surprise us. It would seem to us that forgiveness has the effect of dispelling fear. But it’s the other way around! The knowledge of grace gives the work of consciousness its true depth. For we measure the horror of our situation only by our Savior’s effort to get us out of it (Rom 6:12-14 and 1 Pet 1:17-21). Ps. 130 deals with another subject, of which we have already encountered evident traces elsewhere: it deals with the sins of Israel as a matter between the people and God. Here we do not find a purely legal distress: trust in Jehovah characterizes the feeling that the residue has of his sins, although this feeling is accompanied by that of deep distress and humiliation. This is the effect that always produces in the soul the sight of sin united with the experience of mercy. Purely legal distress is more personal in its terror, though it is wonderfully effective in destroying self-confidence, and throwing us into the arms of mercy; the conviction of sin with the feeling of mercy implies more the feeling of having offended the God of goodness, and this is a deeper work. Here, “there is forgiveness” with the Lord, that he may be feared, and the soul awaits the Lord, though it has cried out from deep places; it desires it, grace is what it looks at; jehovah is the one it expects, towards. 5. The basis of his hope is declared in v. 7, while v. 8 shows his confidence in a complete result. In v. 3, the soul sincerely recognizes what has given rise to the need to which grace comes to respond; verse 7 sets forth what can be relied upon in grace: goodness and redemption in abundance; in v. 8 faith fully relies on this in favor of Israel. For Israel will be redeemed, not from its sorrows, but from its iniquities. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” The faithful implore divine protection against his adversaries (Ps 140)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.